PBC to sue over schools
Board contests state law giving money to charters
The Palm Beach County School Board plans to follow the lead of Broward schools in suing the state over a controversial law that will guarantee millions of extra dollars to charter schools.
But the board isn’t looking to join the same lawsuit. The board agreed Wednesday to secure its own high-powered legal representation, Boies Schiller Flexner, a national firm with offices in Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood.
And District General Counsel Julie Ann Rico said the firm is interested in representing the district.
Law firm Chairman David Boies represented Al Gore in the Supreme Court case Bush v Gore that determined the outcome of the 2000 presidential election, as well as the plaintiffs in the case that legalized same-sex marriage.
Handling the district’s case would be Jon Mills, who has represented the families of NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt and fashion icon Gianni Versace on privacy rights issues. He is also an expert on state constitutional issues, Rico said.
School Board members said Wednesday that they think a state law, House Bill 7069, is unconstitutional because it gives large amounts of money to charter schools without requiring them to have oversight. The legislation requires that districts share property tax dollars used for school construction and maintenance with charter schools.
“There is no accountability, no tool in the legislation that
allows the School Board to require an audit or justification of how the dollars have been used,” School Board Chairman Chuck Shawsaid.
Palm Beach County school officials say the new law could require the district to share as much as $92 million in the next five years. Broward estimates $100 million and MiamiDade $225 million.
Rico said she plans to bring a proposed contract back to the School Board at an August meeting. She said she didn’t know how much the legal services would cost.
But School Board members said they’re happy to file a lawsuit individually, rather than joining Broward and at least 16 other school districts in Florida that have expressed interest in suing the state.
“If we join with other districts, one lawsuit will be easy for the state to defend,” Board member Frank Barbieri said. “Let the state go through the pain of having 17 or 20 lawsuits. Let’s make it as difficult for them as they’ve made it for us to operate our schools.”
Palm Beach County has some experience going to court over charter schools. The district has unsuccessfully fought several legal battles to keep out charter schools that it doesn’t consider innovative.
The Florida Charter School Alliance criticized the district’s latest lawsuit.
“The lawsuit is wrong,” said Lynn Norman-Teck, executive director of the Fort Lauderdale-based group. “The lawsuit is an attempt to choke parental choice and penalize familieswhochoose to attend a public charter school. Education dollars, whether allocated by the state or raised locally, should be allotted to the child they are earmarked for and not find theirwayinto courtrooms.”
Broward County was the first district to agree to sue the state over the new law, voting June 5 to spend $25,000 to begin working toward it.
Broward argues the law restricts the district’s right to “operate, control and supervise” all schools, And its property-tax sharing measure violates the state constitution because charters are not permitted to collect property taxes, according to the district.
The law also steers millions of dollars to charter school operators by setting up a fund for a program called “Schools of Hope.” Under the law, charter operators will be able to tap into a $140 million fund to open in areas where elementary and middle schools have been rated D or F for at least three years in a row.